“Siwash ducks”
Here’s a lexical item that could only come from Pacific Northwest English: siwash ducks. This is a Chinook Jargon loanword siwash ‘Indian, aboriginal’ modifying a native English word. It refers to the various species… Continue reading
Monthly Archive: September, 2012
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BC Indigenous people’s Chinuk pipa script: History, analysis and texts
BC Indigenous people’s Chinuk pipa script: History, analysis and texts. This is a paper I gave at the 47th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages in Cranbrook, BC on August 3rd, 2012. In it,… Continue reading
Chinook Jargon, and Indians, in a Washington state textbook
Lambert, Dale and Laura Lambert. 1998. Washington: Past and present. East Wenatchee, WA: Directed Media, Inc. This is an elementary-school textbook about Washington state for Washington students. I invite comment on some points… Continue reading
The “Chinook lingo”
With a pidgin language, it’s perhaps more important than elsewhere to explicitly recognize the basilect. Pidgins hardly have ‘high’ forms. And they’re used in what the highfalutin folks see as pretty low places.… Continue reading